Thread: CBP seizes over $100 MILLION in smuggled cash in 2009-2010

CBP seizes over $100 million in smuggled cash in 2009 and 2010

Thu, 2011-03-10 08:35 AM By: Mark Rockwell

CBP's Alan Bersin

Customs and Border Protection officers stopped more than $100 million in smuggled cash from crossing into Mexico in 2009 and 2010, according to the agency’s commissioner.

CBP officers seized $104 million in illegal currency bound for Mexico in fiscal years 2009 and 2010, CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin told the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control on March 9. The amount, he said, is an increase of approximately $28 million compared to 2007-2008. Bersin also said CBP had seized more than 1,900 southbound weapons in FY 2010—nearly doubling the approximately 1,000 seized in FY 2008.

The agency has implemented several programs in the last two years that contributed to those totals, he said. CBP’s Outbound Programs Division created in 2009, aimed at stopping the flow of firearms, currency, stolen vehicles and fugitives out of the U.S. has helped, he said. The agency’s 100 percent scanning capabilities for all rail shipments headed into Mexico, as well as its use of “pulse and surge” strategies for outbound operations have also helped, he said.

Bersin said CBP's FY 2012 budget request continues those efforts by supporting 21,370 Border Patrol agents between the ports of entry and 21,186 CBP officers at ports of entry. The agency’s budget includes funding to support deployment of 300 new CBP officers and additional canine assets to port of entry operations that have recently come online, he said, noting that the proposed increases are the largest deployment of law enforcement officers to the front line in the agency’s history.

Bersin said his agency currently has 290 large-scale Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) systems deployed at ports of entry. Of those, 53 are deployed on the northern border and 142 are deployed on the southwest border, he said. Additionally, CBP has deployed 57 backscatter X-ray vans to Southwest border land ports of entry. To date, CBP has used the deployed systems to conduct over 32 million examinations resulting in over 7,600 narcotic seizures with a total weight of 2.4 million pounds of narcotics, and the seizure of over $19.2 million in undeclared currency, said Bersin.

“Used in combination with our layered enforcement strategy, these tools provide CBP with a significant capability to detect contraband, including illicit nuclear or radiological materials,” he said.

http://www.gsnmagazine.com/article/2..._smuggled_cash